CBI court discharges telcos, former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh in excess spectrum case

NEW DELHI: A CBI special court Thursday acquitted all the accused, including former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh in excess spectrum allocation case dating back to 2002.

The court headed by Justice OP Saini has concluded that CBI chargesheet was full of contradictions and and charges against accused could not be proven.

The court however downplayed investigating agency arguments and asked CBI to take appropriate action against erring officials who prepared the chargesheet.

The private telecom operators maintained that it was a policy decision to allot additional airwaves to them including state-run organizations to improve tele-density in the country and there was no criminal intent involved in the matter.

CBI, on the other hand argued that companies were allotted with additional spectrum (beyond (6.2 MHz) by just paying 1% of revenue instead of 2 per cent in 2002 that led to a loss of Rs 846.4 crore to the government exchequer